I have been contacted by many people over recent weeks, including over the holiday break, concerned about their own wellbeing or that of a loved one. The most common concerns being mood swings, feeling more anxious, having a sense of being overwhelmed, with some believing they are falling down a dark hole.
Owners of successful businesses are having thoughts of abandoning their business despite having been in business for many years. Media reporters, many who have been reporting for 20+ years say they have never seen the hatred and anger they are now seeing.
Every organisation is facing unique challenges, the greatest challenges being trying to manage so much uncertainty and dealing with people with heightened emotions.
A simple search on the internet will reveal that violence has escalated over 30% globally in countries where lockdown was used to control the virus. Councils, government agencies, corporates, in fact every company we now work with are concerned about the escalation in aggression and violence they are facing and very concerned about staff wellbeing.
The cause - emotions. Emotions are coming out; they have to come out as the brain goes through a rebuilding phase following trauma. So why does this phenomenon happen and what can we do about it?
When trauma of any sort happens to us, our brain goes immediately into self-survival. It works overtime to help us get through the trauma to return us to certainty, the way it was before the trauma occurred. It does so by relying on our past as a benchmark.
More recent research, including a few studies following the recovery of those caught in the Christchurch earthquake, show that we do recover over time. It takes time. Two to three years before the emotions come out and five to eight years being the norm for the majority of the population to fully recover.
We can expect the feelings described in paragraph one of this post to continue for at least another two years and then a noticeable change to commence as the recovery begins and our brain finds its new certainty. Economists suggest three to five years before we will see any improvement in our financial resilience.
A study conducted in the UK revealed that lockdown had a huge impact on two critical factors to positive wellbeing - eating healthy foods and regular exercise. In the early stages of lockdown physical activity levels decreased, consumption of unhealthy foods increased, and levels of mental distress also increased correspondingly.
A June 2022 study published by the University of Otago identified a concerning link between ongoing COVID‑19 disruption and worsening mental health for those most at risk. This study further revealed that the lockdowns disrupted people's circadian rhythm meaning that people were no longer getting a good night's sleep.
A further 2022 study on how the pandemic lockdown affected the wellbeing on Aotearoa New Zealand found that; where individuals were traditionally outwardly focused when looking for work comradery, social support, and health care, a change towards inward focussing behaviours occurred. In other words, we weren't socialising outside of our immediate network. Loneliness rose according to this additional NZ study.
In 2019 our world changed forever when the Coronavirus swept the world. It impacted every facet of our lives and our usual predictable patterns of behaviour where we found solace and security were irrevocably disrupted. Our brain went into hyperdrive to find certainty where there was none to be found.
We are currently in the emotional stage where emotions are coming out and will continue to for the foreseeable future.
The recommendation that we at WARN International make to our clients is to focus on Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow did not have fMRI scanning back in 1943 when he developed this model, he simply studied people's behaviour in times of crisis.
If you want to help yourself and those around you, start with the first layer of his hierarchy, our primary physiological needs of - food, water, shelter, air, and sleep - to bring comfort through certainty. Eat natural foods high in serotonin as serotonin is a mood lifter, drink as much water as you require for your particular needs to keep the body hydrated, home is our shelter and sanctuary so focus on getting things right there, diaphragmatically breathe to fully inflate & deflate your lungs, and get six-to-nine hours sleep each night.
If you do all of these things then chances are you will feel safe & secure (our secondary needs), then focussing on your work will be much easier, hence you will then begin to socialise (tertiary needs) with others, which will lift your self-esteem (quaternary needs) and you will be able to become all that you were meant to become (quinary needs).
If I haven't convinced you that Maslow's model is still important for us, have a look at where the brunt of the aggression is falling currently - shops (provide food), those involved in construction (provide shelter) and hospitals (provide healthcare of which rest [sleep] is a large component of recovery).
City councils are bearing the biggest brunt of the aggression for they control the entire bottom layer of the Maslow model in our lives, our primary needs, though their regulatory teams.
Still not convinced; the two industries globally where people struggle the most with suicide - construction (shelter) and farming (food).
How does exercise fit into Maslow's model - in very early times we had to physically hunt & gather our food - now we don't even have to walk to the supermarket today, we can have our food delivered. Exercise is second only to sleep as a critical need for our wellbeing.
Looking back in time can be very helpful as we move into the future for that is what our brain does naturally to predict our safety moving forward. We are in the moment while our brain is looking to the future to ensure our safety, basing its prediction on our past experiences.
The further back we look the more helpful it can be for our wellbeing. For it was in the very early times of humankind that our fight-flight-freeze responses developed and therein lies the answer to much of our wellbeing issues of today. Simplicity in its purest form.
Focus on the simple things to better-manage the complicated ones. Start small, don't push too hard. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. For, “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” - Confucius.
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